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Where Were Women?: Women In The United States Intelligence Organizations From The Office Of Strategic Services To The Central Intelligence Agency, Madison Harris

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

United States intelligence historians have largely neglected the importance of women’s intelligence labor as well as the centralized intelligence organizations that existed from World War II to the early years of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) – including the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), Strategic Service Unit (SSU), and Central Intelligence Group (CIG). While assumptions about women in intelligence work during this period are usually drawn from stereotypical portrayals in popular media, such as books and movies, this thesis utilized statistical data and other agency sources to build a broader understanding of women’s actual labor.

This thesis demonstrates that women …

Trinities In World Mythology: Why Separate Cultures Construct The Same Cosmology, Autumn Scott

Undergraduate Fellows' Research

Numerous cultures throughout the world construct mythologies and cosmologies which include a triad, triple deity, or three world cosmology. Specifically, this refers either to belief in a singular deity with three forms, belief in a distinct group of three divine beings with a common characteristic, or belief in three cosmic realms, such as the human world, underworld, and divine world. This phenomenon occurs within Europe, South Asia and East Asia, as well as North America. While many may be familiar with the Greek Moirai and the Christian trinity, this pattern appears well beyond the ancient and medieval cultures who inhabited …

Do Clothes Make The Man? Ftm Crossdressing In The 18th-19th C. Anglo-American World, Aidrian Graber

Theses and Dissertations

This paper seeks to analyze the legacy of "Female Husbands" and other female-to-male crossdressers in the 18/19th c. Anglo-American world and how such people can illuminate the field of transgender history.

Public Art And Military Technology At The Mexico-U.S. Border: Disrupting Boundaries On Battlegrounds, Anna Luise Kaunert

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how contemporary artists Rubén Ortiz Torres, Chico MacMurtrie, rafa esparza, and Cassils transformed military technologies into powerful artworks that interrogate the Mexico-U.S. border as a battlefield. Together, their works illuminate militarization and surveillance technologies at the border and the violent enforcement of U.S. immigration policy.

A Preliminary Study On A Variant British Recension Of De Excidio Troiae, Kailee M. Rowe

History Undergraduate Honors Theses

Dares Phrygius’s De excidio Troiae (“On the Destruction of Troy”) is a fifth or sixth century historical account of the Trojan War that gained significant attention during the medieval period in western Europe. Surviving in over 200 manuscripts, De excidio Troiae had been widely disseminated, developing different traditions in Latin as well as inspiring translations and adaptions in vernacular languages, such as Irish, Middle High German, and Old Icelandic. Dares was considered one of the most reliable sources on the Trojan War, partly because of the decline of Greek in Western Europe, but also partly because of its claim to …

Internalizing Diasporic Peoples: How Do We Keep Native Hawaiians Connected?, Kallie P. Kaaihue-Paopao

Whittier Scholars Program

In the attempt to better understand the grounds for the generation culture disconnect of identity in Native Hawaiians, I study the diaspora of my people. Diaspora is the dispersion of people from their native lands. I find interest in this aspect of my people because the most common studies blame our dispersion on socioeconomic status and as a Native Hawaiian that wishes to do more for her people, I want to express that while it plays a part that there is a disconnection between the social actions and reactions of Hawaiʻi’s people. Common questions that I find unanswered are, why …

American Industry And Soviet Blood: U.S.-U.S.S.R. Collaborations During The Interwar And Wartime Years, Evan Banaszewski

History

This project will examine the connections between American corporations and the Soviet state from the late 1920’s through WWII. In particular, this project will focus on ventures undertaken by said corporations towards the modernization of Soviet industrial might, including, but not limited to, Ford-built automotive plants, Albert Kahn-designed factories, and General Electric-built hydroelectric grids. These ventures not only helped the Soviets transform a historically agricultural society into an industrial one but also enabled the rapid conversion of peacetime infrastructure into hubs of wartime production. The project then situates these private indirect contributions alongside the direct aid provided by the American …

Girlhood, Interrupted: An Intersectional Feminist History Of Decolonizing And Reclaiming Womanhood, Ayden Kelly

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In the past few decades, social and political discourse surrounding womanhood and who is considered a "real" woman has led to the execration of transgender women. This work will explore how recent discourse and rhetoric surrounding who is and who is not a “real woman” can be traced to nineteenth century notions of “true womanhood” that excluded women of color. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with westward expansion, settler colonialism, residential schools, slavery, and post-emancipation serving as backdrops, this work will also analyze how ideologies of womanhood have interrupted and suppressed women of color throughout Western American …

Planting The Seeds Of An “Educational Revolution”: The Origins Of Upward Bound, Jack H. Kirby

Department of History

Histories of American higher education tend to suggest that the relationship between the federal government and higher education reached its apex in the 1950s before beginning to decline in the 1960s. How, then, do we understand the creation of federal TRIO programs in the 1960s and their continued growth through the remainder of the twentieth century? TRIO programs are federally funded projects intended to expand college access for non-traditional students. Through the lens of access, this paper argues that the federal government was limited in its ability to influence higher education during the post-war period because of the highly decentralized …

Rationalizing Atrocity: Vindicatory Careerism And Mass Murder As A Career Path, 1939-1943, Bethany G. Bare

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines members of the Nazi Schutzstaffel from an occupational perspective, focusing on how professional roles shaped their participation in systematic mass murder. As National Socialism gained influence in interwar Germany, it coincided with the rise of a generation of ambitious and embittered men eager to distinguish themselves. The transition from the T4 Program (1939-1941), the involuntary euthanasia of disabled Germans, to Operation Reinhard (1942-1943), the extermination of Polish Jews, demonstrates how mass murder evolved into a career path, as each of the men examined served as T4 personnel before transferring to Poland to assume positions as extermination camp …

The Fourth Skill Revisited: A New-Ish Approach To Latin Pedagogy, Tyler Perry

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

This thesis examines a new way of teaching Latin that combines Gareth Morgan’s The Fourth Skill method with the traditional grammar-translation approach. Latin teaching has often moved between two extremes. Grammar-translation focuses heavily on analyzing grammar, while modern immersion-style approaches focus more on understanding the language through exposure. Each method has strengths but also clear limitations. Morgan’s The Fourth Skill (1968) tried to balance these approaches by focusing on reading real Latin texts, but it relied heavily on Morgan’s personal teaching and included little direct grammar instruction.

To address these problems, this study tested a revised version of the method …

Domestic Cow Of Plenty: Gender And Womanhood In The Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Harshika Ajay Gupta

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

This thesis examines gender and womanhood in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa (Bhāgavata), a Sanskrit text from the 10th century CE that holds an important theological and cultural position in contemporary Hindu traditions. It decodes the Bhāgavata’s unique perspectives on the following: (1) gender, sex, sexuality, and reproduction, (2) women’s social normativity, and (3) women’s personhood and agency. This thesis argues that the Bhāgavata contains a unique theorization of gender and sex as well as a positive valuation of femininity, and that it imbues its narratives with practical resources and actions to recognize and expand the agentive capacity of women.

For scholars …

A Qualitative Study Of Journalism Course Syllabi In Relation To The First Amendment, Elizabeth L. Bunnell

Journalism Undergraduate Honors Theses

The goal of this research is to gain more insight into collegiate journalism course syllabi and the First Amendment. The First Amendment is a foundational aspect for a career in journalism, and one way to learn how college journalism students are interacting with the First Amendment is to conduct a qualitative analysis of the syllabi. A syllabus is the contract between professor and student for the course; therefore, it should contain the most important information relating to the course. 47 syllabi were collected from the School of Journalism and Strategic Media from the Spring 2025 semester. After reading through each …

Amor, Art, And Advocacy: Un Conversación With Chicanx Mother, Grammy Award Artivist, Macarthur Fellow, And Scripps Professor Martha Gonzalez, Belén S. Yudess

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

This Spotlight features a conversation with Professor Martha Gonzalez, a Chicana artivista (artist/activist) musician, feminist music theorist, and Associate Professor and Chair of the Intercollegiate Department of Chicana/o Latina/o Studies (CLS) at Scripps/Claremont College. The conversation draws from Prof. Gonzalez’s background as a Chicana, and the  Chicanxs, Mexicanxs, Latinxs, and Indigenous communities in Mexico and Los Angeles that have shaped her work. She shares her practice in teaching and engaging with collective songwriting, her critique of western paradigms, and explorations of boundary crossing that music facilitates as part of championing the hope and flourishing that comes from within communities and …

The Case For Undergraduate Student Organizing, Nina Goldshmid

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

This paper is a reflection and timeline of my experience organizing a union and negotiating a contract as a student worker at Barnard College. I explored the power dynamics between student workers and college administrations, how to promote unity for progress, and why some undergraduate students are deciding to organize. I discussed the actions of the college that could stifle union organizing and negotiations, the obstacles involved in organizing, and the ways to build solidarity through awareness and coalition. I summarized the main takeaways from my experience and characterize the current student labor movement.

Blueprints Of City Planning: How Function And Symbolism Have Shaped Our Cities, Elinor J. Stoll

Young Historians Conference

Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities. While that wasn’t always the case, cities have existed for millennia, and humans have been planning them for just as long. This paper examines the history of urban planning, from the Indus Valley civilization to Washington DC and New Orleans, into the future of planned cities like the NEOM project in Saudi Arabia. It examines the commonalities between cities across time and establishes a timeline of the emergence of different patterns in city planning history. Among the examples discussed are the Indus Valley civilization, the Ancient Greek city of …

Nation-Building On Pillars Of Fascism: How Italian Fascist Ideals Have Remained Alive In Eritrean Identity Through The Asmaran Urban Landscape, Caspian Green

Young Historians Conference

Roughly a third of Eritrea’s time as an Italian colony was spent under fascist rule, during which the Italian colonists dramatically changed the Asmaran urban environment, as well as its relationship with the rest of the Eritrean colony, to reflect fascist principles. After the fall of the Italian colonial empire, Eritrean political leaders sought to use the physical landscape to justify their claims to sovereignty, reapplying those pre-existing fascist principles to Eritrean nationalism. By examining Italian-Asmaran buildings, roads, and legal structures in their contexts, common threads between past fascist beliefs and the modern Eritrean military state emerge, offering a better …

Rhetoric, Shakespeare, And Tony Soprano: The Influence Of Suetonius's The Life Of Julius Caesar In Personalizing The Leader, Eben N. Cole

Young Historians Conference

History has presented a group of leaders who have been frequently studied and written about; Julius Caesar is among these leaders. The common historical narrative which examines his life has brought particular attention to not only Julius Caesar's leadership, but also Caesar as an individual. During the 2nd century CE, in Ancient Rome, the writer Suetonius published his 12 Caesars, a collection of biographies that included Suetonius's biography of Julius Caesar. Throughout the 12 Caesars, Suetonius would depict his subjects in a manner that was less factual than other biographies which preceded his, yet the 12 Caesars became more influential …

36th Annual Young Historians Conference Program, Portland State University History Department, Portland State University Challenge Program

Young Historians Conference

This is the 2026 Young Historians Conference schedule and abstracts.

“Under The Fig-Tree”: Post-Revolutionary Literature Influences American Government, Clara Kernodle

Honors Theses

The literary context of post-Revolutionary America developed a broad sense of the American character as virtuous, hardworking, and responsible. In the 1780s, three American writers, representing these three categories of literature, penned their perspectives on human character and society, to much commercial success. J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, Royall Tyler, and Philip Freneau described their situations and opinions with candor and wit, helped spark a broad sense of the American character, and influenced the authors of the nation’s founding documents. At the end of that same decade, Anti-Federalist political philosophy drew from an established literary conception of the American …

Catur Piwulang: The Concept Of Great Leaders In Javanese Paradigm, Nuri Puji Hastuti

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Leaders can be a key factor in determining whether a nation experiences a flourishing or declining period. However, numerous phenomena indicate that Indonesia is losing its great leaders. Based on this problem, this research aims to explain and describe the forms, meanings, and functions of catur piwulang as the concept of great leaders in the Javanese paradigm. A descriptive qualitative method has been used. The syntax consists of data collection, reduction, display data, and conclusion. Data validity was checked through the triangulation of theories, resources, and techniques. The forms of catur piwulang are 1) wewehono teken, teken wong kalunyon, …

No Place To Stand: Gender, Discipline, And The Contradictions Of Military Womanhood, 1945–1975, Angela Bouma

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

From 1945 to 1975, American servicewomen stood inside an institution that depended on their labor while restricting their place within it. The post World War II military relied on women to sustain administrative, technical, and medical operations across a widening Cold War landscape, yet guarded the authority and recognition attached to combat and command. Women kept global communications running, delivered medical care in field hospitals, and carried out intelligence work that shaped military decisions. However, legal and cultural boundaries limited the reach of such contributions.

The 1948 Women’s Armed Services Integration Act formalized this tension. Regular status came with ceilings …

Manufactured Urgency: A History Of Humanitarian Photography And The Politics Of Seeing, Dylan Ryu

Historical Perspectives: Santa Clara University Undergraduate Journal of History, Series II

No abstract provided.

Sublatâ Causa, Tollitur Effectus: Pathologizing Male Homosexuaity In The French Colonies, Anna Nicolae

Historical Perspectives: Santa Clara University Undergraduate Journal of History, Series II

No abstract provided.

Historical Perspectives Vol. 30 2025

Historical Perspectives: Santa Clara University Undergraduate Journal of History, Series II

No abstract provided.

"Chinese" And Chinoiserie: Exoticization And Orientalism In The West During The 19th And 20th Century And Its Effects On Museum Practices, Janine Salapantan

Honors Capstones

During the 19th and 20th centuries, the west experienced a keen interest in the lives of the east. In an era of mystery, the people of the west relied on furniture, textiles, and objects to fill in the gaps of their fantasy of the mystical east and its people. This led to the boom of East Asian export and attempts of replication through Chinoiserie, the west’s interpretation of East Asian aesthetics. Chinoiserie and exportquickly filled the homes of affluent families in the west, such as the Ellwood family in Dekalb. This study aims to investigate the origins of various East …

The Brethren In China: Cross-Cultural Relationships Within An Imperial Structure, Sebastian S. Kochall

History and Political Science Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Islam And Acculturation: The Presence Of Shamanism And Indigenous Ritual Practice In The Post-Conversion Ilkhanate,, Miranda H. Lenihan

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Devin Deweese's book Islamization and Native Religion in the Golden Horde: Baba Tükles and Conversion to Islam is a keystone work in the study of post-Mongol invasions Central Asia. He explores how Shamanism, the indigenous religion of Mongol tribes, remained culturally relevant in the Golden Horde following the widespread conversion to Islam in hagiographical narratives.

This study investigates the presence of indigenous Shamanic traditions within the post-conversion Ilkhanate and how Deweese's argument for the Golden Horde applies to other Mongol successor states.  Following the widespread adoption of Islam, formerly polytheistic Mongol and Turkic tribes did not abandon their native culture; …

Aristophanes And Athenian Society During The Peloponnesian War, Joshua Schmidt

Senior Honors Theses

At the end of the fifth century BC, Greek society underwent major changes as a result of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. While the origin of the war and its course of events are described in contemporary sources, the impact of the war on Athenian society is mostly overlooked. However, another contemporary source, the comedies of the Athenian playwright Aristophanes, provides an alternative perspective from which to consider Athenian society. A thematic study of Aristophanes’ eleven extant plays offers a window into changes in various aspects of Athenian society during and immediately after the Peloponnesian War, such as …

Making It Work For The Future: Enslaved Contributions To Southern Baking And The Rise Of Black Culinary Entrepreneurship, Christiana Bell

Honors Theses - Providence Campus

This thesis investigates the two roles African Americans have in shaping Southern baking: first, as the foundational yet historically erased creators of techniques, ingredient traditions, and signature dishes; and second, as contemporary entrepreneurs reclaiming this heritage through the baking industry. Using a conceptual framework of Culinary Justice, Critical Race Theory (with a focus on counter-narratives), and Culinary Entrepreneurship, this study analyzes historical knowledge, cookbooks, and primary source narratives, alongside present-day interviews with Black culinary and pastry professionals. The research tests two hypotheses: first, that the contribution of enslaved Africans was significant and measurable across specific techniques, ingredient adaptation, and “making …